World Music

You have four different projects on the go at the moment, Ruth. Talk us through them.

Well, I picked a few bands this year that I want to focus on. I’ve been playing a lot with a band called Vula Viel. The bandleader is Bex Burch: She plays the gyil, which is a xylophone-type instrument from Ghana. Rhythmically, it’s very difficult. The music comes from the Dagaare tribe in the north of the country. Bex lived there for about five years, and learned how to build the instrument and to play it. They play funeral music where they sit around in a circle and play for 24 to 48 hours, non-stop.

Explain the music for us.

It’s a very strict form of music, so it’s not like jamming on two bars or something that we Westeners can easily understand. There are very long forms of different sounds, as she calls them. She doesn’t talk in chords; she talks